Comparison Among Languages
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Dyslexia and Additional Academic Language Learning Module 5 Comparison among languages C. Cappa, J. Fernando, S. Giulivi1 1Authors are in alphabetical order. All authors have contributed equally to the write up of the present module. Original version. Versions of this module adapted to the local contexts of partner countries can be downloaded from the relative sections (see appropriate flag symbols) This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views of the author only, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Dyslang Module 5 Comparison among languages Claudia Cappa, Jill Fernando, Sara Giulivi, 2012. Cover illustration Euroface Consulting 2012. Fair usage This work is available under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) This mean that the author allows the work to be shared, copied and distributed as well as remixed and adapted provided the following are respected: Specific attribution: This author permits adaptation to local contexts provided the original author and material are acknowledged, and it is clear where the original unmodified version may be found. It should also be clear that the original author may not endorse the derived version. Non commercial use: This work is restricted to non-commercial use. However, it may be incorporated into commercial contexts, e.g. workshops or online courses, provided it is clear that this material may be obtained freely, and where it may be obtained. This publication was produced by: Claudia Cappa°, Jill Fernando*, Sara Giulivi** °ISAC-CNR Modulo di ricerca “Metodologie e tecnologie didattiche per i distur- bi specifici dell’apprendimento” (Turin- Italy), Communication Physiology Lab-IFC and ILC CNR, (Pisa, Italy) *British Dyslexia Association ** Department of Teaching and Learning - SUPSI (Locarno Switzerland) Acknowledgments We would like to thank Volfgang Sahlfeld del DFA-SUPSI Locarno for the comments and contribution to the present Module. The original version in Italian can be downloaded, after registration, from http://www.dyslang.eu/default.asp?jazyk=it&pozadi= (Italian website) or http://www.dyslang.eu/default.asp?jazyk=ch&pozadi= (Swiss website ) or from: www.dislessiainrete.org/dyslang/dyslang-moduli-e-materiale.html The original version in english can be downloaded, after registration, from http://www.dyslang.eu/default.asp?jazyk=&pozadi= or from: www.dislessiainrete.org/dyslang/dyslang-moduli-e-materiale.html Dyslang Module 5 Comparison among languages Learning outcomes • Acquire basic knowledge of the main differences between languages and of the main difficulties plurilingual individuals may encounter, due to the differences between the acquired languages and the languages to be acquired. Useful terminology Morphology: morphology is that field of linguistics that studies the internal structure of words and the different forms that words can assume by adding affixes or by combining them with other words. Morpheme: words are made up of morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of a word. Morphemes can be divided into lexical and grammatical. The first ones have a lexical meaning, e.g. nouns, adjectives and verbs; the second ones (articles, prepositions, endings, etc...) express gram- matical functions and their meaning depends, at least partly, on their context. Besides, morphemes can be free or bound. Free morphemes can stand by themselves in a clause (e.g. Today, yesterday, bar, we, you, that, of, then, etc...); while bound morphemes can’t stand alone and are always attached to other morphemes (e.g. In Italian the -o ending for male singular substantives, the i- ending for male plural ones and, in English, the -s ending for plurals). Bound morphemes are called affixes. These latter can be subdivided into prefixes, if they are added on the left of the word (e.g. ex-moglie, in-utile), infixes, if they are added in the middle of the word (e.g. parl-ott-are), suffixes, if they are added on the right of the word (e.g. dolce-mente, can-i, scriv-ono). Phonetics: is the branch of linguistics that describes the physical characteristics of human sounds and languages. In other words, phonetic studies what we do while we speak and while we listen to someone talking. Phonology: is the branch of linguistics that studies the linguistic function of the sounds, that is their capability to differentiate meanings. Phonology also covers how the sounds of a determined language will combine together and how they can be modified in determined contexts. Phoneme: it is the smallest distinctive unit in the sound system of a language, that is the smaller unit (representation of speech sound) that can determine a change of meaning in two otherways simi- lar words. Syntax: it is the branch of linguistics that studies the principles that, in different languages, rule the combination of words in more complex structures by Claudia Cappa, Jill Fernando, Sara Giulivi, Novembe, 2012 Dyslang Module 5 Comparison among languages Contents INTRODUCTION 1 5.1 LANGUAGES IN THE WORLD 2 5.2 CONSONANT AND VOWEL SYSTEMS 3 5.3 LINGUISTIC TYPOLOGY 6 5.3.1 Morphological typology 9 5.3.2 Syntactical typology 11 5.4 EXAMPLES OF COMPARISON BETWEEN LANGUAGES 14 5.4.1 Turkish-English 14 5.4.2 Turkish- French 16 5.4.3 Final remarks 18 REFERENCES 19 LINKS AND FURTHER READINGS 19 APPENDICES 21 Appendix A - Arabic 22 Appendix B - Chinese 2 6 Appendix C –Bulgarian 2 9 Appendix D- Indo-Aryan languages of South Asia (with sub-sections on Hindi/Urdu and Bengali 33 Appendix E - Polish 39 Appendix F - Portuguese 43 Appendix G - Somali 47 Appendix H - Tamil 49 Appendix I - Vietnamese 51 by Claudia Cappa, Jill Fernando, Sara Giulivi, Novembe, 2012 Dyslang Module 5 Comparison among languages INTRODUCTION In the interstices of language lie powerful secrets of the culture. Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born Although Swan and Smith’s quotation refers to English, this observation could be applied to learners of any language. All pupils can be expected to experience some difficulties in certain aspects of learning an additional language. Where difficulties appear to be particularly severe or prolonged, it can be useful to compare pupils’ performance in the new language with their oral and literacy skills in their first language. In the case of monolingual children, this should not present significant difficulties as language teachers can talk to their colleagues and look at examples of pupils’ work. However, the situation can be quite different for multilingual children where the school may not have much information about pupils’ skills in their first language or indeed about the language itself. The purpose of this section is to familiarise teachers with some of the features of a number of first languages spoken by pupils in our schools. This will enable teachers to gain understanding about whether errors made in the additional language are likely to be dyslexic indicators or whether they could be attributed to features of pupils’ first language. Perhaps more importantly, it will highlight to teachers the areas of instruction which are likely to require particular attention. 1 by Claudia Cappa, Jill Fernando, Sara Giulivi, November, 2012 Dyslang Module 5 Comparison among languages 5.1 Languages in the world There are about 7000 and they have many similarities and differences. First of all, the number of speakers of each language is extremely variable. Some languages, like English or Mandarin Chinese, have a total of more than one billion speakers; others number just a few hundred people, for example some languages spoken by Australian Aboriginals or American Indians; some others are spoken by just a few dozen people and are at risk, in a short while, to disappear forever. However, the most macroscopic difference lies in the ‘sound shapes’ of words carrying the same meaning in the different languages: for example, the object that we usually use to drink is called “glass” in English, “bicchiere” in Italian, “verre” in French, etc… This relation between sound and meaning is completely arbitrary. Languages also differ in the sound inventories they draw from, in order to form words and, in particular, in the sounds they use to distinguish different word meanings: the English language has chosen, among all the possible linguistic sounds, a consonant like the initial one of the word “that”, but the same sound hasn’t been chosen, for instance, by Italian or French. Similarly, many English words include an aspirated “h” either at the beginning or in the middle of the word. Italian doesn’t have aspirate “h”, and that’s why many Italians learning English, when pronouncing words like “head”, “hot”, “holiday”, “ahead”, very often drop this sound. In this module we will try to provide some examples of the basic typological differences that can occur among languages and explain the reason why it can be useful for foreign languages teachers to know – even just partially – such differences. Many of the examples provided below concern differences with respect to English, and to the possible learners’ difficulties in learning this language. However, the principles of those differences can be extended to other languages. We will deal with differences in sound inventories, but also with the different modalities that every language has chosen to convey the meaning of words through morphological and syntactical structures. Such modalities are related to what we call “linguistic typology” (see par. 5.2). 2 by Claudia Cappa, Jill Fernando, Sara Giulivi, November, 2012 Dyslang Module 5 Comparison among languages 5.2 Consonant and vowel systems Phonemic inventories of different languages can be very diverse, both in terms of number of phonemes and in terms of type of phonemes. British English, for example, has 10 single vowels and 21-24 consonants (numbers may vary in American English and in the different dialects).